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28 Day Monster Challenge: Titleknown's Entries
Explaination Roughly, this was for a challenge to come up with 28 Monster concepts over 28 days based on prompts. Which I did, though comically non-consecutively and without illustrations, and I release them to the public under a CC-BY Vanilla License! Credit goes under my name Thomas F. Johnson, if you can guess! So yeah! And, this will probably be the format for challenge-based monsters on the wiki for the record, unless they have enough stuff around them to give 'em their own page! Swamp Gas Slider #1: A swamp-dwelling creature So many of the world’s paranormal phenomenae have been explained away by spurious skeptics as “swamp gas” that parapsychologists may have an involuntary reaction of wretching whenever the subject is brought up. And yet, there is a species of beast who’s strange powers rely heavily on his biochemical phenomenon, the terrapinoid creature known colloquially as the Swamp Gas Slider, with a habitat in the swampy areas of the southeastern United States It resembles a South American mata mata in appearance, but with moss growing on its shell and small round growths resembling berries. Its scales also shine slightly to help conceal it in the wetland waters, which it is very good at despite being the approximate size of a small car. It hunts by ambush and it’s main diet is meat, mostly fish; possums and birds, but the most interesting part of the creature’s diet is its taste in vegetable matter, specifically the various mosses and seaweeds and algaes of the area. It cannot digest these foods, at least not very well, but instead processes them inside its stomach to form a specialized type of biogas, colloquially known as “swamp gas” to most people. It appears to be able to control the color with the color gold being a common choice in many recorded encounters with humanity. The creature also has bristles on its tongue and the roof of its mouth, allowing it to create a “static cling” effect which is used to ignite the swamp gas. Reasons posited for why it evolved this ability may vary, but what is known is that it puts the gas to multiple uses, such as asphyxiating birds with large doses of the gas to get them to , stunning smaller prey and distracting larger predators by igniting it, or even to retreat by creating a choking, flammable barrier of the gas. There are also reports of mystical phenomenae associated with the gas, specifically of implanted memories, emotions, commands and even complete conversations. The creature is known to consume psychoactive mushrooms as a part of its vegetable diet, and these have been attributed as a possible cause of the “mystic” effects of the creature’s breath. But this does not explain the fact that the implanted memories include information that the affected could not have known, or how reports of some implanted conversations seem to show consistent names and personality traits for certain individual Sliders over several encounters with unrelated people. They have not normally been aggressive for most of their recorded history, with several reports of them saving drowning individuals, and several encounters (Mostly in the sixties) describing various philisophical conversations had with the creatures while under the influence of the aforementioned swamp gas. However, as the swamps have shrunk and been drained over the decades, reports have increased of them deliberately leading astray or attacking tourists, and gathering in increasing numbers in collective groups. None have been able to approach these gatherings up-close due to the thick clouds of swamp gas surrounding them, but the emotions and memories implanted by those who have ventured near to them have all been angry and. And there has been a curious increase in the amount of attempted acts of terrorism and political assassinations where they are known to habitate.There is also one infamous individual living in one of the infamously toxic and horrifying “pig shit lagoons” dotting the U.S., known by the name Opia, with a small religious appocalypse-cult attached to him. There are several comprehensive texts on this individual and his follwing, and I do not wish to speak of manners so gruesome and horrid, so I will speak no more of him… Headcracker #2: A creature that afflicts others with a specific disease This microwave-sized creature looks more like a work of architecture than a living being, a cluster of tiny marble-like bricks arranged in the vague shape of a human face, with four metallic legs and four metallic wings, and a retractable proboscis similar in appearance to a car antenna. More unusual than its appearance however is the creature’s ecology. The process by which the creature exists starts by it stalking a human for several days, with a particular focus on observing the mental state and psychology of the person involved. The mentally troubled and the brilliant are of particular interest to it. If the person is lucky, the creature will leave it be. If not, then it will go onto the next phase. In that next phase, it sneaks up onto the person, and “stings” them with the antenna, a sensation described by survivors like touching one’s tongue to a live electrical socket. This somehow infects them with the creature’s trademark disease, though it is unknown how the process transfers it. The symptoms of this disease do not affect the victim themselves, but everything else around them. For, the disease causes the victim’s mental state to alter the environment around them, changing the structures and organisms around them into . The alterations to the landscape are as varied as the mental states of these people, but the more troubled the person is, the more malign the alterations get, and the longer they are in a certain place, the more drastic the alterations get. Almost all of these “psycho-formed” environments produce small fauna, which are the only thing that is observed to be eaten by the Headcracker, along with another commonality of large alcoves with large amounts of detritus seemingly perfectly made for creating bizarre. These dual purposes of nesting and consumption are hypothesized to be the reason why these creatures transfer the disease, though their origins are unknown. The disease is known to be some variety of non-contagious bacterium, but its properties are unknown, as all scientists who have observed it through a microscope have been struck completely blind, and those who have attempted to study its properties in accordance with the scientific method have been struck with cerebral necrosis. There was once a much larger-scale government-funded study in the 1980s attempting to thoroughly analyze the disease using advanced supercomputers for the purposes of avoiding any of the unfortunate fates that befell other subjects. The test area is now gone. Not uninhabitable, but completely erased from all official records and human perception, only known about due to the lone escapee from the project, who currently resides in a sanatarium somewhere in Nevada. The external effects of the disease are permanent, which can be quite daunting to any sentient organisms altered by its affects or who’s properties have been altered into strange psychoscapes. Athough, some places warped in certain ways space and time-wise have been turned into very popular tourist attractions as of late. The disease will pass its course in approximately a month, but there are those who chase after the birds after the affliction passes. Reasons have ranged from the feeling of power the disease gives them or a strange sense of stockholm syndrome for the creatures, but those who do succeed in finding them multiple times seem to slowly slip into megalomania and insanity, with the ultimate result being a team of trained parapsychologists to put them down. And then there are those who have random “resurgences” of the disease years later… Reemees #3: A particularly cute monster inspired by an insect or an arachnid These arthropods have been jokingly called “the Pikachu of the arthropoda” by some biologists, but despite what the no-fun-allowed crowd says, there is some truth to that. They look like a combination of a jumping spider and a lobster the size of a dog, with strangely flexible many-pincered “claws” that work very similarly to hands, hints of an endoskeleton and advanced respiratory structure to support their large (for an arthropod anyway) size, and a mottled green and yellow exoskeleton. But, despite the fact that they have many traits in common with so-called “icky” creatures, these creatures look very much conventionally cute, with wide eyes; an adorable cry and a playful disposition; even towards other humans. Their intelligence is speculated to be around that of the great apes, though some say it is even higher due to their many novel uses of human tools. They have the power to control electromagnetism, which normally tends to be used in their native environments to enhance their jumping ability to or to mess with the flight paths of certain birds and fish who are their main prey. But, with the far more metal-rich civilization of humanity, they’ve found a number of different uses for it, such as messing with electronics so they can steal food and nesting materials, using metallic debris in a manner similar to a railgun for the purposes of defense, and even just for the mere purposes of play. Despite the deadly posiblities of their powers, they are benign creatures, sociable amongst themselves, but shy amongst humans. Though, some have managed to form bonds with humans they’ve lived near for a while, and even what could be called “allegiances” with humans who have approached them correctly. Little is known about their reproduction process, though recent observations have shown that they do form strong five-individual bonds which may hint at mating habits, but what is known is the appearance of their “eggs”, which is much akin to a disembodied placenta with a yolk, and the fact that they take very good care of their young, as what are believed to be juveniles have been seen riding on the backs of fully-grown reemee There are many, many conspiracy theories about where they come from, why they appear to have no living relatives amongst the animal kingdom, why they seem to be more common than usual near places of parapsychological activity, why they sometimes gather in large clusters and create strange electrical fields that can cause small-scale blackouts, and why the NSA (As has been recently leaked) has been keeping tabs on any website that mentions them. But, perhaps, an answer has been found to all of those questions in southern California. There, near the coast, was found a large; broken-open stone/metal structure resembling a reemee egg. Inside was found a supercapacitor, a complex machine which appeared to be broken in a way no researcher could figure out to fix, a strange magnetically-patterned metal disc, and many; many rotten reemee “eggshells” . The patterns on the disc were surprisingly/distressingly easy to translate into modern computer code despite its aeons long age, and appear to contain a large amount of text; pictures; and even primitive video. The closest languages to it are ancient Sumerian and ancient Mayan, but even those aren’t entirely analogous. The videos and pictures appear to be of various works of art; theatre; historical events; great metallic archetectural structures upon mountaintops; and individuals in what looks like some sorts of cultural garb, amongst other things. All of the individuals in the pictures and video appear to be reemee or derived from things relevant to the reemee. Several files near the end suggest a strange apocalypse, involving fire, and mechanical ape-like creatures coming down from the sky. This author feels safe positing that these creatures are refugees from another time, the preserved legacy of a wondrous world now lost and dead to us, and I believe they deserve their respect because of this. Katmandus #4: A humanoid monster with feline features The name for these creatures, like many things, started with a pun, “Cat-man-do” and all that. But, it is a very accurate pun-name, as these creatures are exactly what it says, cats imitating men in an evolutionary sense. The Katmandus are more accurately described as several convergently evolved species, all related to the big cats evolved into a semi-humanoid form to survive in a human-dominated world. Though, the fact that they can interbreed, as evidenced by the many Florida Panther/Tiger hybrid varieties, perhaps suggests an deeper degree of convergent evolution than any ever seen by science before, or else far stranger forces at work. They disguise themselves as humans using various concealing clothes scrounged and salvaged from places they find, and their hunting strategies are pretty much to beg, borrow and steal, using their humanoid forms to slip into human society and either trick or rob the humans for their daily bread. This is helped by their ability to control their smaller feline brethren en-masse, both using pheremones and some form of mind control as of yet unstudied outside parapsychological circles, the use of which is why many have earned the nickname “catherders”, and many others earn their keep by making scarce those who others want to “disappear” via a horde of hungry street felines. They hold no hatred towards man, but there is no love lost between them either, considering them “angry monkeys with guns and concrete,” in the words of one during a (very rare) interview. Their religion is a strange form of animism, with many small “gods” of the landmarks of the cities they roam and larger ones. Several of these have been known to exist for years by parapsychologists, but still others are yet unknown to them. Note: I’ll admit I kinda ripped off Mimic (Or, at least, the original story Mimic was based on) for this one. But the pun's semi original, right? Right?! Killballs #5: A monster inspired by deep-sea organisms A land-dwelling relative of the Xenophyophores, these lumpen; aggregating things are becoming an increasing menace. Nobody knows where they came from, though there are whispers that it could have been a government-directed effort to create a superior bioweapon, rumors made more plausible by the men in black suits who follow in the wake of these disasters; asking strange questions and eating only a mixture of raw eggs; gatorade and V8. They are actually a clump of xenophyophore-related organisms, in a weird approximation of multicelular life, sitting at the core of their giant horror-clump in an alcove of water, pseudopods and mucus spreading around/holding together said clump. They gather biomass, usually trash and food waste sometimes pets and humans, to sustain the core cells, but what is more bizarre is what (and how) their inorganic covering works. They pick up on various bits of technology, along with a heavy amount of concrete and asphalt, and, through secondary cellular bodies manipulated/linked by pseudopods, they not only shield themselves through a mucous-connected web of the aforementioned concrete and asphalt, but can repurpose the machinery they pick up to their own uses. An electrical generator can shoot lightning, a car can be repurposed as a set of “wheels” so the clump doesn’t have to roll everywhere, a gas tank and welding torch can be repurposed as a flamethrower, power lines can be turned into electrified whips, and so-on They reproduce asexually, and the young ones are almost always deposited into the sewers, which is also where they most often happen to sleep, giving them a septic smell that persists for the rest of their lives. As a final, almost comical note, the creatures have become something of a delicacy in Florida, with posses of drunken idiots using only dynamite and a blatant disregard for self-preservation to crack the things open and access the inner “cells”, which are said to taste indescribably delicious when deep fried. Note: Probably not what they intended when they said “Based on a deep-sea creature”, but [http://bogleech.com/abyss-xeno.html the creature it is based on is indeed located in the deep sea abyss, so...] Neo Tsukumogami #6: A monster that disguises itself as a common household object. Tsukumogami, of course, are objects, brought to life after 100 years of use or sudden neglect, appearing most often in Japan where they are considered youkai (Which roughly means the same thing as “fae” does in Europe). And while there was a lull in new appearances of them for a while, rumors of their extinction have been greatly exaggerated, as recent parapsychological investigation has uncovered. Their creation/birth takes around 25 years, down from the previous 100, thanks to the fast pace of modern life, and they lack the weakness to electrical currents that defined/decimated previous generations, due to both generally originating from electrical and, arguably, due to the acceptance of electricity as “normal” rather than just another new-fangled convenience There are far too many to cover in one post, but here are a few of the more notable ones: Dostes- A toaster with four cat’s legs and an eye on each non-handled side. It can spit out any baked good it pleases from the top of its head, but these are either always cold or always on fire. It uses the latter function for self-defense, and the former function for owners it likes. Given how long toasters have been around and how little they get upgraded, it’s unsurprising that some of them are quite old for “modern” tsukomogami, but even the yougnest of them all demonstrate unmistakable leadership qualities for household objects Eltrige- While the occasionaly-appearing horrible spider legs and ghostly skull-like visage are their most notable physical features, those are only brought out for purposes of mere transportation, and these game cartridges (usually from the NES or Sega Genesis era) are more notable for their internal features. For, because their function has been to immerse players into their games’ respective worlds, their function as Tsukomogami is to function as true lenses into real otherworlds; other universes and other dimentions, which become more vivid the older the being gets. And sometimes, things from those dimensions look back at us. The most infamous case of this is; of course; Incident RED RUN, which others have covered in far greater detail than I; so I will not re-iterate it here. Though I will say that there was an incident with a Pitfall cartrige and a cult formed around it that I found much more horrifying… Videonome- This being is more innocent than the Eltriges, which makes it all the more terrifying. It looks like a normal TV, but with a slightly “off” odor to it. Open it up; and an organic nightmarescape is revealed. It receives deep primal vibrations from the astral plane, altering them to fit the things their current viewer desires to see on its screen. But, the alterations in the surrounding aether have a side-effect. which the creature does not care about as long as it pleases its master. And this side effect is, the more the viewer watches it, the more they and their surrounding environment gets altered to the appearance of the vibrations. Sometimes this can be good; more often than not it’s just nightmarish. It can reveal chitinous “antennae” and use them to fly away when somebody tries to destroy them or switch them off. Before they leave; however; they always holler with a mighty whoop, “LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!” Microhave- A microwave with a eye where it’s clock used to be, this thing likes to wait on empty roadsides, where it appears to be a normal microwave in perfect working condition. When somebody gets close, it opens up to reveal its slimy mouthlike interior, letting out a concentrated blast of microwave radiation on the poor sap. It then skitters away on reptilian paws as the person bursts into a puddle of gore due to boiling from the inside out. This creature is one of the most common Neo-Tsukumogami, but also one of the most dangerous. Ed’s-All-While many flop-cars are prominent modern day tsukumogami, like the firey Pintonflagration and the small-but-vicious Trablanch, the Ed’s Alls are the most interesting of the lot, and thus are the main ones. The Ed’s -Alls come from the Ford Edsel, a car that attempted to be cool but; thanks to design-by-committee, was the lamest thing ever. And it is perhaps this unfufilled desire that causes these cars to act like 1950s greasers, ever anachronistically cool. They offer rides in exchange for repairs or gasoline, the latter of which does not fuel them but rather acts sort of like alcohol. They bear the usual car-tsukumogami body plan, with glowing cnt’s eyes instead of headlights and a set of teeth beneath the hood. They can not only spew smoke like other car-tsukuomgami of their era, but also flick out a giant switchblade from underneath their chassis in any direction. Though, sometimes they accidentally flick out a giant novelty switchblade-comb, which is sort of like tripping for them. They roam in packs across the US highway, with an anachronistic slang and a contempt for authority; which often translates into a deep class consciousness in these inequal days. They are fond of dramatics and also of badly misquoting James Dean and Marlon Brando Wrydre/Shrawe- The Wyrde is a sentient washer with a goat’s ears and horns, the Shrawe is a sentient drier with the ears and horn of a rhinocerous. The Wyrde can spew limitless gallons of water when angered, and the Shawre can spew a similar amount of scorching air, though they rarely do this except when angered. They live in mated pairs, and go on angry rampages if separated from one another. They feed upon small amounts of laundry, usually taking one of two paired items so as to avoid being conspicuous. And that is what happened to those socks that always go missing in the laundry. Forresters #7: Your favorite animal combined with a tree. A strange combination of t-rex and fruit tree, these beings are the placid guardians of the unspoiled primeval forests or, more often nowadays, the enraged guardians of the very-much spoiled natural forests of the world. They eat no meat or fruit, though their mossy backs host many different types of herbivores alongside lush foliage and plantlife; some of which were thought to be long-extinct. It needs no food, though fruit of every kind grows from the branches on its back, but its teeth are still sharp, as it uses them to ward off larger intruders. Though, that is not the deadliest thing it does to intruders, but rather is merely a warning. Its deadliest power, however, is the ability to ensnare a creature in the branches on its back; often from many yards away. After the creature is ensnared; it brings them closer causing them to fuse with its barky flesh as the animals move away. Sometimes the faces of ensnared humans can still be seen on its skin. Also, even if you have some inexplicable desire to develop on its unspoiled primeval forests, DO NOT kill it or try to kill it. Why? Well, you remember the velociraptors from Jurassic Park? And you remember what happened when they decapitated the Deer God in Princess Mononoke? Now imagine those combined. DO NOT TRY TO BLOW UP THE FUCKING FORRESTER! Vilotzhe #9: An unusual take on the vampire These creatures hardly have the Lugosi-inspired dignity and glamour one thinks of when describing vampires. Indeed, their faces more resemble those of the infamous Count Orlock, with large; hooked noses, huge ears, big watery eyes; sharklike rows upon rows of regrowing teeth, and no hair whatsoever. But it is the body where things get really strange. Though they are humanoid and able to stand on their own, and strong far beyond mortal men, they are also almost completely boneless, able to contort their bodies in any manner they choose and able to squeeze themselves through gaps approximately the radius of a coffee mug. They also possess wings, which look akin to the wings of bats combined with a human ribcage. They feed using a yards-long; barbed tongue, cutting open a vein and lapping at it while their anticoagulant; numbing saliva keeps it flowing. And while they are nocturnal and their eyes are very sensitive to light, they are not burnt/weakened by the sun like other vampire types. Nontheless, despite being incredibly creepy they are far more genial than many other species of vampire, fearful of human discovery and very wary of harming their “prey” with more than a little lightheadedness in the morning and only using their teeth and superhuman strength for self-defense. They mostly just want to be left alone and in peace, though some individuals have managed to befriend them with patience and more than a little caution. They do to stick together when they’re able to find others of their kind, but they are uncommon as a species. Evidence from interviews has suggested that they all originate from human stock, though they are not known to be able to transfer their strange “condition” by any means, and they are usually from various marginalized classes, leading some parapsychologists to believe that their marginalized condition lead to their transformation via “deep magic” that pervades human societies. They appear to be nearly immortal and, though their earlier memories get hazy as they live away the aeons, some have been able to recall events from as far back as 2,000 years ago. Monstermen #9: An unusual take on the werewolf. These beings could be called “werewolves” in only the very loosest sense of the word, in that they are people who transform into monsters. But said monsters tend to be less lupine and more like fleshy biopunk nightmares. No two of them are alike in their monstrous forms, but they all definitely share a similar generalized appearance, predatory; humanoid and snatching features from all different phylums and classes of animal; with coloration trending towards the colors of bone; muscle; mollusc flesh; chitin and metal. Their general appearance has been called “Umbrella Corp” or “Monster Of The Week” by some, but never to any of their faces This level of genetic diversity is surprising, given how much of a genetic bottleneck humanity has gone through. Parapsychological investigation shows that their transformation involves absolutely no magic, even though in their monstrous form they weight twice as much and stand 1.5 times higher than their human forms on average in a flagrant violation of the Law of Conservation of Matter. Beyond their incredible strength and speed and their lightning-fast healing abilities, hey do have various powers which vary wildly by individual. For example, one notable individual (who we will talk about more later) has the power to exude cold from his body and to create fleshy “seeds” he can spit from his mouth and which grow into disturbing chitinous trees. The age of their first transformation varies; but usually happens in the teen years, and they must transform at least once a month; transforming reflexively if they haven’t this month on certain phases of the lunar cycle. They can transfer their “condition” like the stereotypical werewolf, but the method of this varies from individual to individual; with most never even discovering their “special trick”. Even then, creating more Monstermen is discouraged, out of the fear that they will have attention drawn to them and be destroyed. Surprisingly, despite the fact that they are terrifying in both appearance and abilities, most of them are peaceful, generally wanting to be left alone. They keep their mind in their transformed form, though form-related cases of disassociative identity disorder are shockingly high, and most of them nowadays try to “pass” as humans, keeping contact with each other through small united “clades” who enforce stringent restrictions on who can be let in on their “secret”and deal with “problem” members of their subspecies. Of course, we cannot go without mentioning the infamous Lou Garou, the member of the superhero community who brought the species to the world’s attention, and why they are called “werewolves” despite being vastly different from the popular conception of such. He does indeed look vaguely lupine, with bony “horns” that look like canid ears, digitgrade legs and claws (Albeit the claws are more catlike and the legs split into two at the hip); a four-lobed lupine jaw, a feathery coating vaguely similar in appearance to wolf fur, and a. He is surprisingly candid about his own experiences with the press, being permitted as such by his clade as part of a “larger plan”, though he declines to reveal many other larger details, which leaves many gaps in our understanding of these creatures. On a final note, scientists are split between whether the subspecies was created by alien DNA tampering or exists as “The next stage in human evolution” which is a scientifically meaningless concept but what the fuck ever. The strange pagan religion still practiced by some of them offers evidence for both possibilities. [Author's Note: I was cheating a bit here by making these more body horror vaguely-kinky monsters, but these are still technically re-vamped werewolves. Specifically, created so that I could revamp a terrible old from my teen years without it reeking so much of furry (No offense furries). You’ll know him when you see him. He was also a sidekick to a superhero around his age who was pretty much a body horror Plastic Man, because reasons.] Gunebug #11: A candy-based monster. There are pockets of the world, influenced of course by magics of varying ages, that could be called candy-based ecosystems. Many are threatened due to overharvesting of the habitat, and parapsychological-conservationists are rushing to save what is left and start captive breeding. This is because many of these strange sucrose-based beings do very poorly outside of their habitats, unable to survive without a similarly sugary ecosystem to support them. But, there are exceptions to every rule, and it is perhaps karmic justice that most of these beings have become major nuisances in the first-world countries that are stripping these places bare. And one such major nuisance that we will be covering here today is the Gunebug. It is an arthropod the size of a football, made of an unpleasant tasting butterscotch and looking much like an overgrown junebug. IT feeds mostly on cellulose, including paper; furniture; crucial support beams and most other things we make out of wood. It is one of the few creatures around that can digest celulose; converting it into the simple sugars it is made of by a process that is equal parts scientific and magical. It makes its nest and keeps its offspring in a sticky goo akin to those awful Mary Jane peanut butter-taffies. The chemical contaminants it ingests combined with the bacteria-encouraging properties of its candied saliva make its bite horribly toxic; like a lesser version of that of a komodo dragon, which combines with its wood/paper-eating tendencies makes it a major pest. Its very prescence is considered a sign of squalor even as it spreads to the more upscale parts of urban areas, and many attempts have been made to wipe it out. These attempts have not been very successful, given how the As a final note, the creature’s grublike offspring look and taste very much like circus peanuts, which I suppose is good if you like the taste of circus peanuts (Which I very much do) Note: With this one, I wanted to play with the idea that, if there are candy creatures, there must be candy ecosystems, and with them potential candy invasive species. Because I like silly worldbuilding like that. Pankaldy-Arkh #12: A beautiful monster that uses its beauty to lure in prey. Named after what the first person to see it, the creature is considered. It’s an uneven- vaguely elephantine creature with a hide like a patchwork from every endangered species imaginable, tusks and horns akin to every slaughtered species from elephant to rhino to narwhal to walrus, shells attacked to its hide from every endangered mollusc imaginable, meat that is rich and flavorful and fatty, internal gizzards filled with ambergris and rare/exotic oils, it is truly a poacher’s dream. Of course, that dream quickly becomes a nightmare once a poacher actually tries to hunt the creature. Those rare oils can be spewed out through the creature’s trunk; reacting to form something similar to napalm or the blast of a bombadier beetle. That aforementioned meat; horn and fat makes it frighteningly quick; resilient; and dangerous, added to by the sweet smelling venoms exuded from their ends. Those shells can be used as channels to create infrasound vibrations causing sickness and unease in those approaching it. All around the death toll of those attempting to hunt them numbers in the hundreds of thousands. They are not aggressive towards those humans not attempting to kill them; and most other creatures give them a wide berth, and their social dynamics are most similar to those of tigers, so they are not regarded with fear by the human populace who does not try to hunt them, and are even regarded as something like “pets of the neighborhood” by those who happen to live peacefully in their proximity. Of those people attempting to kill them and chop shop them for their parts, most have been killed or come home empty happened, and those few occurences of capture have had the common factor of the creature randomly stopping and seemingly willing itself to die even as bullets and explosives bounce off its hide ineffectually. And, perhaps not coincidentally, the amount of attempted poachings and deaths related to those poachings skyrockets after these occurences. No real evolutionary origin point has been found for the creature, and indeed it has only begun to appear recently, leading parapsychologists to darkly speculate that this creature is the force of nature’s spontaneously-created attempting to counter the “imbalances” caused by human poaching through human death. Indeed, that would explain why the creature’s major habitats are not where most poached species are harvested but rather where they are most often sold and consumed. And that indeed would also explain its ability to selectively disappear into the shadows just as many hunters try to get the final blow or why most “successful” poachers of it have been found in their homes deceased; covered in gore/trample-marks. [Author's Note: Cheating a little on the definition of “beautiful” here, but I do think it fits given that the stuff it is covered in is often hunted for its beauty. It’s weird how “nature’s vengance” became a running theme with the monsters, but considering how I at the time considered the best strategy for endangered species would be “turn them into Resident Evil-style biomonsters,” I am unsurprised. Though, I will confess it's not the best politically in terms of how the IRL politics of poaching work, tho at least I kinda tried] Spamhog #13: A monster based on a common farm animal, like cows, sheep, or chickens. Created by Hormel in an attempt at creating a more efficient food source, this creature looks like a horrifying amorphous Bottin-esque fleshy sheet of random pig parts, spreading fungally through various areas and able to create “fruiting bodies” which look and act approximately like pig-shoggoths and are used for the purposes of defending themselves and spreading to new areas. Since the creature was intended for creating a cheaper and easier source of spam, its tissues are loaded with nitrates and sodium, which it can concentrate and spray onto/gnaw into the flesh of attackers for an acid-like effect They are strong; resilient and aggressive, but still killable if hit with enough ammunition to bleed out, and are more like fungus than animals in their feeding habits. Thus; since their escape and propigation; they are regarded as more of a nuisance than a massive ecological threat. Hormel takes ruthless legal action against news media that refers to the creatures by their colloquial name “Spamhogs”; though they say it’s for the purpose of preserving trademarks, so in an act of childish revenge the media has started referring to them as “Hormel’s throbbing pork”. Their meat is delicious if fried, having the taste of normal spam, but if uncooked eats the body from the inside-out and uses it as a meat puppet to protect other Spamhogs from people, ala the infamous “Stuff” of 1985. People so infected can be spotted by the number of terrible pig puns they make. Note: For this one, I worried I was going too “obvious” with this one. Then I realized that if an amorphous pig tissue abomination was “too obvious” then I must be doing something right here. The Saint Valentines Day Comprachico Day 14: A monster that only appears in our world on Valentine’s Day. There are many mystical creatures that make a point of roaming the earth on Valentines day, but few are specifically restricted to that date. One of those few is the infamous and horrible “Saint Valentines Day Comprachico”. It is a creature resembling a stereotypical “cupid” but only in a vague way; a roiling blob of flesh distorted into shape by various mechanical apparatti, most notably a fleshy/metallic “crossbow” it has instead of an arm. It stalks couples, usually for a couple of hours, then when the couple is closest together firing a polypous bolt that explodes into a white sludge that usually covers the couple; likely along with several previously uninvolved bystanders. Then, its namesake takes effect, warping and twisting anything covered by the ooze into horriffic un-human monstrosities; almost always twistedly sexual in nature and barely sentient. The monstrous creations have been described with such lovely epithets as “Like Heironymous Bosch with more dicks” and “like if that guy from Superbad directed a horror movie”. The worst one was described as “Like if you added an n to Dogscape”. It first appeared exactly one year after the Saint Valentines Day Massacre, and has been seen in a variety of geographically disparate locations; often being sighted in multiple places at the same times. It was once thought to be a demon, but further study has shown it to be from another; even more horrible clade. Any attempts to kill it have not stuck, as it still manages to appear the next year, even though the body still manages to stay and does not decompose normally. The few that parapsychologists have managed to capture have given their collective motivation as ‘For love”, before willing that body to die. And recently reports have come up of a few “un-humans” who’s bodily fluids have the same effect as the creature’s bolts, which is a worrying sign… Note: This creature was actually inspired (Along with the fact that I wanted to make something super nasty for this one) by an artist known as Demon-Man. I will not link to him because A) It's porn B) It's body horror nightmare porn that basically fits all the epithets I put in the description. Diabowin #15: A flamboyantly colored monster with a beautiful voice. A modern being in the tradition of the Phoenix; the Firebird and the Napalmetto Bug, this creature is something like a plesiosaur, but with a multitude of feathered wings rather than flippers, and scales and feathers the colors of rainbows. It is also distinguished by the breadth and beauty of its song. Each individual has a strong; eerily humanlike voice that is known to make some bystanders weep when they first hear it, and each individual also has a variety of different songs far surpassing the amount known by any bird in existence, and far surpassing those of most people for that matter. They are also capable of communicating in human tongue; but only do so through the manner of their powerful; wondrous song. It is one of the rare land creatures that is bioluminescent, creating a wondrous light show as it moves through the night. It subsists on anything it can get its hands on, though for some strange reason it seems to prefer to consume charcoal and aluminum cans. The fact that its feathers and teeth contain both metallic alloys seems to give a possible explaination as to why. It can also disgorge a large amount of perfectly cut sapphires; rubies and diamonds from its mouth, though only after it has eaten. While chemists are more interested in the incredibly unusual properties of the slime the gems are caked in, the parapsychological community is most interested in the creature’s dual uses of the gems. For, while the creatures are a common-uncommon sight, with their bright feathers, on certain fall nights they have been known to create trails of the gems to lead other humans. It then reportedly tells these humans with its song that it would like to have a conversation, and for each minute it “speaks” (also in song) it will spit out another gem. These conversations take on various subjects, from the deeply personal to the incredibly mundane, and the creature’s glow grows brighter with each second spent talking. After a certain amount of time, it will fly off, but not before saying the words “And remember, we love you all.” Then there is the gems’ second possible function, as nestmaking material. After eating a certain amount right before the winter comes, the Diaboins fly away in pairs and disappear from all known surveilance to spring. They sing of it sometimes in the conversations; a place in realms unknown that they only refer to as “being there”, square off the map. It is apparently contained within a great canyon miles wide; filled with waterfalls and millions of spires of rock that hold lush “gardens” on the top. There they mate and lay their jeweled eggs in nests made of jewel, which the young feed on when they hatch. They also say that the elders of their race fall into the canyon when they are ready to die, exploding when they reach the bottom in blazes of rainbow light, It is said that the DeBeers company is doing investigations into how they may enter this place; which is very; very worrisome for most parapsychologists. On a lighter note, they also like hanging around rock concerts, but they also have an undying hatred for post-grunge, and will make a ruckus and tear the place up if a post-grunge concert is playing nearby. Note: So, I pretty much tried to make this as lovably saccharine and Lisa Frank-y as possible, lord knows if I succeeded Rhode Roundhead Day 16: A monster that lures humans into wooded areas and makes them extremely fearful of the world outside said wooded area. Everyone’s heard about Slenderman in the parapscyhological community, or at least one of his nicknames like Slendy, The Operator, The Stalker, Der Ritter, The Puppeteer, O'l Skinny, The Tall Man Who Isn’t Played By Angus Scrimm, He Who Walks In The Periphery Of The Rows, That-Of-Many-Copyright-And-Or-Option-Holder-Dodging-Names, etcetera. But, few have heard of his less towering cousin, probably because he’s not the type who lets those who see him blog incessantly about him. In fact, no footage or pictures of him exist, but descriptions from those who have encountered him have given parapsychologists a good idea of what he looks like. A squat faceless humanoid with a completely spherical body, wearing a tophat, tails and pinstriped pants, he doesn’t sound intimidating, but it is what he does, and how his victims are found that is disturbing. All knowledge of victims gathered by parapsychologists or recorded from primary sources has been found due to being in the creature’s heavily wooded preferred “areas” on other errands. Said areas also have an unusually high amount of sightings of Mothman and The Operator. Nobody intentionally searching for Rhode’s victims has found them, and nobody searching for Rhode itself has ever come back. The victims have been only been found in parts of the forest untrackable by GPS, when the vegetation turns black and subtly inorganic, and fog rises from the earth, known as AREA ZERO-FIVE in parapsychological terms. All victims have been sighted and met within viewing distance a curved road of red bricks. The victims speak of being lead onto the road by a voice; with the road only appearing beneath their feet after they have sighted its speaker, Rhode. They speak of wandering around the forest, subsisting on the black worms and white bird-likes that live amongst them, unable to leave. Those who have tried to lead them out by the hand have only been left with a bloody smear on said hand. When asked about the road, they are always terrified of it. Rhode apparently constantly taunts and cajoles them about it, saying “just a little bit farther”. They never want to go, at least the ones who have been here for a long stretch of time. They all say they always go back, speaking of the taunting “escalating” and “screaming”. The road apparently leads to terrible places, realms of urban nightmares and inorganic rot, and their descriptions of the things found there could fill several books. There is apparently a paucity of food and shelter in these realms; and even sleep is impossible compared to those forests. And they talk about Rhode appearing to them, taunting them and insulting them, but always giving them these hints. None of them have deciphered these hints. They speak of always coming back to the road, still rambling, always coming back to the forest, where they prefer to stay and shelter again until he starts taunting. Their dress; often appearing archaic and prescient both at once, and the artifacts they have given others suggests that they are telling the truth. None have reported meeting other victims while walking. Over half of those who have reported sightings of a victim have disappeared a year or less later. May have reported halucinations of a round figure telling them to get on the road, as well as the visual of a road out of the corner of their vision Do not get on the road. [Author's Note:I based this dude a little on Squatman from Bogleech’s “Don’t Get Spooked” game, which I hope he doesn’t mind. And he showed up in another thing of mine, The Creatures of The Woods Between, which I need to figure out how to put on here...] Red-Handed Bandits Day 17: A monster that causes a minor inconvenience, like getting your socks lost or bogging down your internet speed. These creatures look like chimeras of stereotypical food-product mascots, parts from different cartoon animals patchworked together into one, though their hands are always the same shade of red. They appear in cupboards; refridgerators waiting for a human to open the door, where it will speak, snatch several specific items from their cupboard, and run away out into the streets, disappearing the moment they get out of their “victim”s sights. They always have a specific phrase they say; enthusiastically but oddly forcedly, as they run away. Each one has several specific products it will snatch, but none else. They do not snatch generics or store brand products, or even those products with less recognizable brands. Not-coincidentally, their appearances in the public sphere have caused a recent uptick in the sales of generic andstore-brand products. The only recorded deaths of these creatures have happened when all their specific products are discontinued, though nobody has ever tried firing a gun at the creatures, given how everything they steal can almost always be rebought at another store. There has been one case of a creature coming back to life after a product was brought back on store shelves. The death toll was 35. All live specimens captured for study have collapsed into a pile of gore and meat. They were reportedly created as “universal mascots” by an advertising agency at the behest of several large food-production corporations. The CEOs of said corporations were later all found in their offices hung from nooses, with the exact same time of death and the exact same note, saying “Forgive us for what we knew”. Said notes were all written in the exact same style of handwriting, which did not match that of any of the deceased CEOs. Attempts to find the ad agency lead only to the concrete foundation of a building burnt down in the 1940s, smelling of rotten fish and with footprints like those of a pelican embedded in the sidewalk. Note: I may have gone a little too “grimdark” with this one. Hopefully it’s the fun/compelling type of grimdark rather than the stupid one. Or both kinds, they aren't mutually exclusive. Andamotonics Day 18: A monster based off a childhood fear of yours. They looks something like animal-headed Chuck E Cheese-knock-off animatronics in trenchcoats, though none of the species match any produced variety of restaurant animatronics; and a few even appear patched together from several different animals. Their movements are stilted and lifeless as they hide in the shadows or barely blend into crowds, approaching children and teenagers who wander off too far, opening themselves up to reveal various pincers, rollers and various other devices. The are very loud when visible, but when the coat is closed the grinding and whirring can barely be heard. Nor are the screams of the struggling youths, bashing in vain against their lead-heavy coats as they are trapped and bleeding out within the grinding mechanisms as they take them to their destination. A young amateur parapsychologist first made her name by deliberately attracting them, smashing them, dissecting them and publishing the results online. The devices appear to be mechanically sound and work in tandem, but she was unable to find any “true” seat of consciousness for the creatures. She speculated that it was perhaps this means it is created by some united pieces; or that the prescence that gives them sentience leaves the body after it stops functioning. She also reported once following one via getting it to “consume” a pig carcass she’d prepared using clothes; cheap cologne and salt as a “human” dummy, which the creature responded to and grabbed. She followed it to a former Discovery Zone, now in ruins, where it entered an alcove beneath a tile. The alcove lead to a large black hall with several more of the creatures carrying struggling children. None of them noticed her as she followed them, even when she entered their line of sight several times. They then entered into what looked like a massive circular theatre made of black stone ringed with other halls, with a pit in the center and a huge cubic screen in the center of that broadcasting video footage. Children were deposited in the pit by the creatures walking up to its edge, pushing out the children, and leaving. By this point; approximately half of the children were deceased. When flesh was dumped into the pit, a chemical stench and several electronic tones amidst the sounds of sizzling; mechanical grinding and screaming by the few who were still alive. The footage broadcast on the central screen appeared to be of vintage B-movies and television cartoons, but ones uncatalogued by any central source; and with sporadically high production values and shockingly graphic content. Other researchers since have tried to replicate this, and found that there are several other types of places leading to this theatre, mostly the former locations of defunct retail chains where children would have congregated, such as KB Toys; Showbiz Pizza Place and several abandoned miniature golf parks. There have been attempts to destroy this theatre. None have been successful. [Author's Note: This one’ kind of cheating a little (Noticing a pattern here?), because out of all the Chuck E Cheese puppets, I was only afraid of that fucking Pizza Chef (I think his name was Pasquale), but I expanded it to fit all the sorts of creepy mascots that “entertained” children, along with an old nightmare I remember very vivdly. Also, I must say with great pride, I actually wrote this before FNaF got super popular, a few weeks before in fact. I PREDICTED A THING, WOO!] Frightjaw Day 19: An intimidating, vicious monster that can be easily defeated with a common household object. A member of the class of Paranatural known by parapsychologists as “Boogeymen”, this creature looks like a nightmare made flesh, a spider-legged thing covered in dark brown hair, with a head like that of an emaciated horse. Despite appearing quite bulky, the creature’s mass is made mostly out of hair, with its true body being quite thin; allowing it to fit in-between walls and the cracks beneath furniture with ease. It prefers to catch its victims by surprise, restraining them beneath one or more of its hooves.Though its teeth are blunt, this does not impede its predation as its bite still hurts like a bastard, and it prefers to swallow victims whole and head-first to avoid anybody else hearing their screams of terror. It is also incredibly strong despite its thinness; with survivors reporting its core feeling “like iron” as it restrained them. Luckily though, the creature has a very common weakness. The slightest touch of coffee, whether it be in the form of beans; grounds or liquid, burns its skin like acid, usually causing it to flee immediately before the former victim can “double-tap” it. It knows about this weakness, and tries to hide/dispose of any coffee it finds, though it is not very good at it. [Author's Note: God I hope this dude isn’t too generic. Tho, he does seem to anticipate several Slimyswampghost pieces...] Battleship Fish Day 20: A monster that inhabits coral-reefs. This creature is a shining; silvery eel-like creature approximately the size of a bus and the shape of a World War II battleship, hence the name. Its scales are made of metal, with a metal/bone armored head much akin to the Dunkleosteus of prehistoric ages and large coarse gills that filter through the water. Of course, the major difference is that when the head closes, there is a nozzle-like opening, and that is where the most fascinating feature of the beast comes to the fore. For, its highly resilient gills actually filter acid from the water and concentrate it in a sac in the creature’s gut, allowing it to spit a gluey acidic wad from its mouth, which sticks to objects like napalm. This is not only good for hunting the hordes of Jellies which it feeds upon, turning them into a wad of liquefied tissue that it then swallows whole, but it also allows it to get the iron it needs to replenish its coat. For, the acid is also highly corrosive, causing even stainless steel to rust in a matter of seconds, which is why the creature is speculated to often target human fishing vessels, dissolving the metal and feeding on the rust. This creature was first sighted in the early twentieth century, and the amount of sightings per year has only increased since, to the point where they are becoming a major pest for their impact on shipping and fishing. They also lair in coral reefs; almost always where there is bleaching; massive jellyfish swarms and mass species die-off, leading some scientists to speculate that its’ (Or perhaps, some darkly whisper, even its very evolution) were prompted by the ocean acidification caused by global warming. Scientists also say that, in almost all cases, the reefs where the creatures lived began to recover; sometimes at shockingly fast speeds, when specimens of these creatures began to reside there Note: Again, Nature’s Revenge is the driving force for this monster-of-the-whenever. Funny how that works Wandering Mawder Day 21: A monster with three mouths, none of these mouths being on its head, and a highly specific diet. This is a being defininitely knowable as a creature of pure magic, with a “head” that consists of a book of varying shapes and sizes; flapping open like some comical bird. Sigils; runes; and words float about inside, with three hologram-like mouths projected from its interior; floating about in the air like will o’ the whisps. The mouths constantly mutter as it travels across the roads, “sleeping” only at the place where three of them intersect. It is a talkative creature, harmless unless threatened, and always willing to talkabout the art of magic, but especially a certain three areas, different with each one. The reason is that those three mouths feed on spells, each mouth feeding on a specific type of spell . The types that they consume can be as general as transfiguration spells, or as bizarrely specific as spells that protect the user specifically from bears; robbers and aquatic creatures (and only those things), but each mouth can only feed on that type of spell, exchanging rare magical knowledge for the possibility of food. They are fickle in loyalty, most often siding with those who consistently “feed” them. If one mouth is underfed, it goes flying off and begins physically consuming objects related to its spell of choice until it is “Satisfied”, then returning to its main body, which sits in a paralyzed torpor in the meantime. It is suspected that these beings are actually derived from the frustrated wishes of wizards who have died, unsatisfied at being unable to master the magics they most desired before their deaths. Though the creatures’ can only recall their earliest memories dimly, their recollections have been traced to several known mages, all of whom were reportedly missing their spellbooks at the time they were found deceased. [Author's Note: I wanted to try and be inventive with this one, because anybody can stick a mouth on not-a-head, but it takes a true genius to explore what not-a-head can be. And yet, I still ripped off part of the concept from Banjo-Kazooie’s Cheato and making a joke based on a terrible spell from legendarily terrible tabletop RPG FATAL… Though, not one of the gross ones, just one of the baffling ones.] Hadebender Day 22: A monster with at least 2 heads and no eyes. These creatures exist in any dark and lonely places in the world, any place where water is prominent and light does not, whether it be an abandoned gas station bathroom, a cave where lightless seas form, a city sewer, or (as happened in one bizarre case) the largest abandoned indoor waterpark in the world. They look very much like bluish; multi-headed eyeless salamanders, with their teeth showing a distinctly carnivorous character. Their external gills are thick and leathery; and their skin is covered varying amounts of bioluminescent spots along with a thin coating of slime. When born, it is the size of a dog and has merely two heads. One head has the ability to spit a flash-freezing spray of mucous; which not only serves as a deterrent to predators but also makes anything it touches very brittle so the creature can easily dig/nest in it. The other head has the ability to spit a cone of black mist with several flashing lights allowing it to set up a quick escape or a devious ambush if it so desires. At the beginning of its life it is very vulnerable to other mystical cthonic predators; like the air angler and the deadly Mirthworm-Jim, especially due to the fact that it only sees through a strange form of full-body echolocation which has been compared to a bagpipe in its workings. But if it survives this tumultuous youth, it will become a force to be reckoned with. For, as it grows, it grows more heads, all of them part of the same collective consciousness and able to regenerate themselves if cut off. And with every head it grows it gains one new type of natural spell, most of these being unique to the individual. Usually though, they have to do in some way with water; deep-sea life, cold, and various dark forms of light; though, they all start out with the same two. In terms of growth there is no upper limit for the creature, with some specimens recorded as having one-hundred-and-nine heads and being the size of a blue whale, and the amount of beautiful luminescent spots grows larger and brighter with it. It is much like a dragon in thought and power, though lacking its trademark haughtiness; with a natural inquisitiveness, and a slow; careful thinking process that uses its many brains to analyze a problem/subject/process from all possible angles. This can take years; leading some to characterize it as “ponderous” and “vacilitating”. But, it does give good results when given the proper information and supplies . And it is always willing to help a cause it finds “interesting”, though it will never leave its home when the sun is up. The creatures can also swim to darkened watery places other than the ones they live in by going “deep”. Indeed this is how they reproduce by going to some unnamed river “below the center of the world” (Speculated by some to perhaps be the legendary River Styx) to deposit eggs and sperm in an emotionless; almost mechanical action of instinct, returning quickly to their home territories after the act and allowing their fertilized eggs to rift away and hatch in other dark; watery places. [Author's Note: Before you asked, yes I did model this after D&D and the sorts of variant-y weirdos that pop up in the D&D Monster Manuals past the second one in every edition. Tho it kinda actually resembled Trent Troop's Synaltren by sheer coincidence...] Skoril Day 23: A monster that appears in crowded areas in broad daylight and travels silently through the crowd. Nobody knows what it wants but police stations are generally flooded with missing person reports after it appears. Named after its comical cry, this creature is something like a crude imitation of a squirrel. Of course, given the metallic texture of its fur, its asymmetrical; dopey face and its large; awkward body, nobody would ever mistake it for a squirrel, but they don’t really seem to know that. Parapsychologists have classified it as an “Unknowable Eldritch Thingy” (Their words, not mine), but it is very much a harmless one. It likes to wander in crowds, and while many people turn up missing after encountering it, leading to much worry and the filing of missing-persons reports, they are always found naked, slime-covered and with several hours of missing time but otherwise healthy and okay. They also usually have an object with anomalous properties clutched in one hand; with no knowledge of how they go it. In 99% of cases those objects are completely useless, though 1% of them are actually quite useful. The creatures also have a strange tendency to wander into grocery stores, inexplicably causing all apple juice containters in the building to become completely empty without even touching them. They also fear the logo of Magnavox and will flee from it in any incarnation; though theold “His Master’s Voice” picture provokes an outburst of attempted violence; which is as terrifying and inconcievable as it is ineffectual. Note: Now for this one, I could’ve gone scary.But the scary version of this has been done to death, so I thought I’d do the polar opposite, a creepy unknowable eldritch thingy that’s at the low end of the Lovecraftian food chain. Also, these did make a cameo in The Creatures of the Woods Between, but not explicitly Peacecomer Day 24: A slime-based monster with an addictive slime that causes feelings of bliss. Named as a darkly ironic joke by cryptozoologists, this creature looks like a floating transparent mix between an anomalocaris and a jellyfish filled with a purple-pink swirled slime. But it only “looks like” this, because the transparent exterior is actually a shell, apparently a separate near-brainless animal puppeteered by the true creature; the slime itself. The slime feeds and reproduces slowly, spreading out fungally on their food and very slowly extending tendrils into its food, reacting with the surrounding air over the course of several hours to consume its prey. This is a problem, considering it is a carnivorous creature, and its host body is slow, squishy and overall hilarously unfit for predation But, the creature has a trick. It’s able to secrete a secondary; oily slime from its main body, which has halucinogenic properties with secondary euphoric and stimulant effects. It also works on almost any organism with minimal toxic effects. Unless you count the instant and vicious addiction that happens after the first high toxic. But, that is part of its hunting strategy. It sprays the creature with its slime, which is absorbed into its skin, the creature gets high, then the creature crashes and starts craving the substance; losing its sense of self and rationality almost entirely and its sense of smell becoming unusually sensitive. Then, after the addicted creature starts starts spraying small globs of itself, which the creature then follows. This continues until the Peacecomer finds a suitable prey specimen, at which point it then spits a significantly larger chunk of itself on the prey, which causes the animal to furiously attack said prey to get at it. After said prey bleeds out from its wounds, the Peacecomer discretely settles in the body of the target, eating away at it, periodically spewing out smaller quantities of the slime to keep its victim protecting it while it eats. The slime is useless as a narcotic when inside the creature or attached, and is For obvious reasons, it does not prey on flying animals and prefers to stay hidden from the creatures it “targets”. It usually feeds once every week, and they have been using humans as “intermediaries” with increasing regularity. Their floating transparent “bodies” are thought to be some subset of atmoshpheric beast which they started out using as temporary “steeds” and which slowly evolved into an organism that is essentially one and the same as its riders to the point that their reproduction is even tied to the slimes. The slimes can communicate with humans by means of some weird telepathy, but most interactions with it tend to devolve into the creature screaming justifications for what it does while spraying its slime in a furious torrent. In most cases, this leads to the Peacecomer overexerting itself and dying. [Author's Notes: You have no idea how hard it was to avoid making this another anomalous eldritch thingy. Or a rip-off of The Stuff. Or a rip-off of Aylmer from Brain Damage. Or something that would fit better on 4chan’s /d/ board.And yet I still ended up naming it after an obscure Dolph Lundgren movie. Not something sexual as you may have all guessed. Because, as you may have noticed, 80s-type horror aesthetics are also a running theme in these...] Luminateye Day 25: A crystalline monster that causes feelings of unease, which it then feeds off. They say a stopped clock is right twice a day, and so too are conspiracy theorists sometimes not endless fountains of hilarious stupidity. For, sometimes behind various sinister events; there is indeed a united force pulling the strings. However, it is not a human force or organization, but a creature, given the informal name of “Iluminateye”. These creatures look like huge pyramids of glowing green crystal, with what appears to be an eye made of gold in the center. When dealing with one of these, however, it is not likely that one will get close enough to discern this. For, while it can fire a burning ray from its eye, it is otherwise very weak and fragile, only able to slowly levitate, and even a single shot of a .34 Magnum being able to mortally wound it. It is also, however, very powerful in the art of telepathy, not only able to read and make contact with other minds, but also to implant ideas into the heads of people, which it how it attracts its first patsies, usually hiding in plain sight in places of commerce and political importance. It also has the ability to unlock a wide array of psychic powers via said telepathy, including ones that it lacks like telekinesis or pyrokinesis, which allows its hidden agent to go about its work. The work being, of course, to spread chaos. Their agents vary from the highest CEOs and politicians to the lowliest janitors and garbagemen, but they all have some access to power, even if the power is only regional or even local. All the ideas and agendas the creature implants are all meant to generate misery and unease, which is its main food (Though the exact method by which it consumes it is unknown). Even if it is only involved in local politics or the running of a small business, it can cause massive political and financial destruction before it is discovered and destroyed. While personalities vary from individual to individual, most of them are selfish creatures, with a highly socially-Darwinistic worldview believing in total social control as the highest goal of life. Though, Its reproduction process is mostly unknown except for the fact that it is highly expensive and requires large quantities of heavy metals, human pituitary glands and creamed corn. Notes: I have no idea why I made this an Iluminati-monster, but I'm glad I did. The Seller of Sweetmeats Day 26: A monster you can summon by chanting its name 3 times in a dark room in front of a mirror. What this monster does when summoned is up to you. She is one of the many spirits summoned by saying their name in the mirror, but she is far different from the rest of that murderous lot. But while the times; items used in the ritual; and even the “true” names to summon her by all vary by the telling; and may not even be set quanitities, her appearance always remains the same. She looks like a middle-aged woman in the garb of a typical late 19th-century factory worker, notable only in that it is identical in appearance; weight and feel to pure platinum. She weirds a “wand” with a needle and thread on one side and a scalpel on the other and carries with her a large, heavily insulated box made in the style of a culture that never existed, containing an array of bizarre organs. When introducing herself, she always asks the same question, “And what is the choicest cut for you?”, for that is her stock and trade. Specifically, she sells magical organs, which she attaches to the buyer at time of purchase with her “wand”. All of them have different functions, but a common “type” she sells magical “familiars” that can exit and enter to do their work, and it is suspected that she may possibly just be a composite of a large number of those types organs in one body; given how often her “parts” tend to wander away. Her charges vary, from all your worldly possessions to a rock taken from the side of an alley, usually tailoring her prices to the person and almost always having some ulterior motive behind it. But, despite the eerieness of her accoutriments and profession, she does appear to have a humanistic streak, as she sometimes is lenient towards people she likes or feels some sympathy for; and sometimes her motives just boil down to “to teach a valuable lesson”. [Author's Notes: If you think this was inspired by karmic-y J-Horror anthology characters like from Petshop of Horrors or Franken-Fran…Well, you’d be right] Handyman Day 27: A monster with unusually large hands that is generally found prowling the halls of hospitals at night for unknown reasons. While they have most commonly been encountered in abandoned hospitals, these creatures have been sighted in every possible creepy place left behind by man. From rotting southern theme parks to scrapped auto factories to dead malls to the ruins of forgotten palaces to unsettling gothic mansions to even a few sex shops, the Handymen have been seen working. They look like perverse semi-centauroid creatures, humanoid but for the giant hand emerging from below their waist, and the slightly smaller hand with eyes on the knuckles that acts as their head, dressed in an approximation of blue-collar workers gear and made of what looks like a yellowy; chalky substance. Each finger of each hand has a different tool or applicator on it, as they wander through the place taking apart and putting together objects in bizarre configurations and drawing cryptic sigils, amongst other; more unnatural things. Sometimes they will appear to work on objects that are not at all or only partially “there” and draw on thin air. Though, these are the tasks it gets most distressed about anything interfering with, though interfering with any task of its may be enough to provoke its ire, and people who interfere eventually end up becoming “part” of their designs. They work in teams of seventeen, which work in perfect precision as if they were one organism. When one is isolated from the others or heavily damaged, it collapses into dust, only to reappear in another room as if nothing happened. If it stumbles upon it, the creature will grow inexplicably angry at the dust and start “swallowing” it with its hand-head. It’s also worth noting that any building these creatures are sighted in starts to gain a reputation for far more sinister anomalous beings appearing there, from The Operator to The Rake to the Master Engineer to Simon Slaughter to the Deep Hives, leading a few parapsychologists to theorize that the Handymen’s work actually prepares the way for these beings to find purchase on our world. What benefit the Handymen gain from this is unknown. It is known that; outside the places where the Handymen begin to work, strange signs and motivational posters begin to appear, the most common being written simply with “BEWARE OF BIG HANDS!” [Author's Notes: Again, cheating a little here, because they don’t just stalk hospitals, but I thought the idea of a meta-horror-creature who preps abandoned places to let other things in was just too good to pass up. Also, it let me make yet another bad pun, a more blue-collar-y eldritch horror and a cool obscure Creepypasta shoutout, so that’s always nice...] Reeemics #28: Look back on all the monsters you’ve made and create a hybrid of two of your favorites. As previously mentioned, the Handymen know no bounds in the types of spaces they enigmatically “prepare,” except for one. They refuse to work near Reemee dwellings, current or former, no matter how long they have been abandoned. In most cases of them working near such, the Handymen seemingly refusing to step over whatever invisible line demarcates the line between the Reemee’s property and theirs, even though if they blunder into one of said areas, it appears to have no ill effects on them. This is unusual given the Handymen’s usual posessive fastidiousness, even moreso given that the Reemees appear to be highly cavalier about approaching them, and the Handymen appear to be far more forgiving about the Reemees interfering with their work than humans, but perhaps the answer to why this is could be found in the creatures known as the Reemics. They look like yellow crawling hands made of chitin, and are surrounded by a constant aura of static electricity and smell of ozone. They are mostly harmless and non-aggressive, scuttling around the areas where Handymen habitate, carefully stepping around the designs that the Handymen have made. At times they will scuttle up on top of a working Handyman, momentarily touch “fingertips”, and then scuttle back down and continue with their business. Observers in the field have noted that most of these occurrences happen between the same pair of Handyman and Reemic at the same time, leading the Reemics to be thought of as “pets” for specific individuals amongst the Handymen (though the dangers of overly anthropomorphizing anomalous being have been well-documented) All Reemics that have been found outside Handyman worksites have been deceased specimens. Dissections of said Reemics reveal a physiological structure wholly alien compared to the relatively “normal” Reemees, but seemingly squeezed into shapes meant to mimic the Reemees. Many parapsychologists presume this to be done by the Handymen, and the known existence of larger; more dangerous anomalous beings with too many anatomical similarities to be a coincidence supports this. It is unknown why the Handymen would go through the likely intensive breeding and plasmic alteration to create a creature specifically analogous to the Reemees. Perhaps they just find the little buggers cute. -Skoril in a Reemic Suit- Of course, wherever there is a relationship in the natural world, there will be something to exploit it. And so it is with the Handymen/Reemic relationship, via the Skorils. At times, Skorils will appear in places where the Handymen are working, wearing a cloth suit distinctly modeled after the Reemic. This suit appears very well crafted, with intricate detail work and fine stitching, but it is also still very obviously fake to the average viewer; clearly showing their normal face and limbs and appearing completely artificial. The be-suited Skorils go through areas containing Handymen while wearing these suits, shouting “Reemic, Reemic” and wandering aimlessly. One might be lead to believe that the suit is an effort to camoflauge themselves as they wander through these environs. The reality is very much the opposite. For, this action always leads to them being viciously beaten by the adjacent Handymen, a hideous ringing sound howling from nowhere summoning the other Handymen in the building to join into the thrashing; usually until the Skoril “dies”. This would appear to be insane and downright counterproductive on the Skoril’s part, but then we have the… -Meshal Skoril- This variety of Skoril looks like the Skoril in the Reemic suit, but twisted and disturbing thanks to the wad of Handymen fused to the back of the Skoril, the wad appearing to have torn through said suit in whatever process fused the creatures. The Skoril appears to be mentally unaffected by this change, still retaining its dopey; walleyed look and still aimlessly wandering, but the attached Handymen appear to constantly flail and struggle, leaving chaotic marks whenever they touch a surface. Sightings of Meshal Skorils have almost always occurred after sightings of Skorils in Reemic suits. Sightings of previously unknown anomalous beings also follow in the wake of these sightings, and this has lead to some great deal of concern amongst the parapsychological community about a possible sinister truth behind the Skorils’ dopey facade. We can all thank god that these sightings are incredibly rare. Or, at least, for now anyway… Notes: This was a toughie, because there were three that I actually liked the most, the Skorils, the Handymen and the Reemees. So I decided to do this for all three of them because YOU DON’T CONTROL ME GRANDMA! Category:Thomas Johnson Species